Our Produce

In 2020, when backpacker labour was virtually unavailable during the pandemic, Angus Galwey approached the nearby Bidyadanga community to assist with the cultivation and harvesting of Shamrock’s fruit and vegetable crops. From this collaboration, Pijarta Pty Ltd was born. Pijarta is a company jointly owned by Bidyadanga Aboriginal Community La Grange Inc (BACLGI) and Angus Galwey, which leases land from Shamrock Gardens and grows a range of horticultural crops for southern markets.

In its first season in 2021, in response to demand from market wholesalers in Perth, Pijarta set out to develop a sweet potato production enterprise to capitalise on a marketing and branding opportunity to dominate and outcompete Queensland imports. Results from early nursery slip production and sample harvested product highlighted some areas to be addressed before advancing further plantings.  As a back stop measure, a small 2.5ha planting of pumpkin was planted for cashflow assistance.

With more research required to develop production of sweet potato, Pijarta moved over to growing watermelon (now 100pc seedless) in 2022. This has been cultivated successfully at Shamrock since 1992 and continues to be the most natural and generally profitable niche crop for the area. The full-time drip irrigation and good crop husbandry routinely generates yields above 50 ton/ha of marketable fruit.

Rockmelon has been grown on the property as well as pumpkin.

Employment opportunities for Bidyadanga people are available along with training opportunities in the agriculture sector. This is a very exciting project as the farm will grow produce that will be sold all around the state.

These employment opportunities will also provide a range of career pathways in the agriculture industry. And the location of the farm allows people to continue to live in Bidyadanga, commuting each day.